Petronet LNG Net Increases By 58% As Prabhat Singh Appointed As MD

LNG importer Petronet LNG’s profitability got a booster due to higher efficiency utilization of its Dahej terminal, despite its Kochi terminal remained a drag. Company’s net profit during Q1 zoomed past Rs 247 crore as against Rs. 157 crore earned during the corresponding period last year, showing a growth of whopping 58%. Though its profitability declined on the sequential basis, as company earned Rs 300 crore profit in quarter ending March 2015.

On the heels of 98% capacity utilization at Dahej terminal, the company clocked a total turnover of Rs 8410.5 crore as against Rs 10196 crore earned during Q1FY15, a drop of 17.5%. This reduction happened due to lower off take under long term quantity quantities over last year by almost 30%. In totality company handled 131.52 TBTUs of LNG volume as against 138.67 TBTUs handled during corresponding period last year. Importantly around 6 TBTUs of LNG has been handled at company’s Kochi terminal, which has been marred by non availability of gas pipeline network in the southern Indian states. Company is using this facility by serving two clients; BPCL and FACT and handled 6.11TBTUs of LNG, including the reload sales. Importantly, the company is experiencing huge loss due to interest cost on the investment done on the Kochi terminal and company is trying hard to make use of its Kochi facility by giving it on rent to some private players. The company management informed that work for expansion of Dahej LNG terminal from 10 MMTPA to 15 MMTPA is going on as per schedule and it is expected that this capacity expansion will be completed by end of the year 2016.

In another important development, Gail’s Director Marketing Prabhat Singh has been appointed as the MD and CEO of Petronet LNG. This post has been vacated by Dr. AK Balyan, whose tenure ended on July 16 2015. The Board in its meeting has appointed Mr. Prabhat Singh for a period of 5 years on the recommendation of the Search Committee & Nomination and Remuneration Committee.